MIAMI COUNTY OHIO - BIO: COOKSON, Charles W. (published 1925)
***************************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.
***************************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Gina M. Reasoner
AUPQ38A@prodigy.com
February 6, 1999
***************************************************************************
HISTORY OF OHIO - The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925
Volume III, page 54
CHARLES W. COOKSON. Among the men endowed with the true gift of
inspired leadership in the educational life of the state, one of the most
notable is Dr. Charles W. Cookson, present superintendent of public
schools in Franklin County. Doctor Cookson has been a teacher, school
administrator, lecturer on the educational platform and at all times has
had a vital message to deliver and an influence for good to exercise,
whether in contact with children or in his work among teachers.
His own life has been a record of self achievement. He was born in
Clayton Township, Perry County, Ohio, son of William and Maria Cookson, and
his early advantages were limited to the country schools of that day. He
attended Fultenham Academy in Muskingum County, completed his sophomore
year in Wooster College, and in 1895 was graduated with the degrees of
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Pedagogy at the Ohio University at Athens.
Subsequently Ohio University conferred upon him the degrees Master of Arts
and Doctor of Pedagogy. These degrees marked real achievement as a scholar
and also in his work as a teacher, since he had taught school at intervals
throughout the period he was obtaining his college education. He taught at
Shawnee, New Straitsville and Somerset, and in 1906 was appointed
superintendent of schools at Troy, Ohio. That office he held for thirteen
years. In the summer of 1919 he accepted the offer made by the county Board
of Education of Franklin County to become county superintendent of schools,
and since then his office and home have been in Columbus.
In Franklin County Doctor Cookson has repeated the success that has
long attended his efforts as a teacher and superintendent. He is thoroughly
modern, progressive, a fine type of the school man of the twentieth
century. He has under his jurisdiction all the schools of Franklin County
except those of the independent District of Columbus. Altogether there are
about 100 hundred schools and almost 400 teachers.
Doctor Cookson is a member of the Masonic Order, the Columbus
Optimist Club, and for years has been active in church and particularly in
Sunday school work. He has regarded the Sunday school as a sort of
corollary to the secular school, and each Sunday he makes it a rule to
attend as many Sunday schools as he can visit over the county.
Doctor Cookson was formerly assistant professor of English at Miami
University Summer School, and for a number of years has been one of the
most popular and forceful lecturers and institute instructors. He has been
connected with a number of summer institutes and has also delivered some
short addresses and lectures at educational gatherings and at chautauquas.
His fame as a lecturer is appreciated in many Ohio communities and also in
other states.
In closing this brief sketch something should be said of the
notable occasion at Troy in June, 1919, when Doctor Cookson left that
community to begin his new duties at Columbus. The occasion was a farewell
service in his honor at the First Presbyterian Church, and, as described by
the Troy Daily news, it was "such a demonstration as has never been
witnessed in Troy before, testing the seating capacity of the church by
those come to express by their presence, their sincere regret in losing
such an efficient head of the schools and such a worthy citizen as Mr.
Cookson." Rev. R.H. Dunaway, pastor of the church, presided, and one of the
guests, H.C. Sellers, a boyhood friend of Mr. Cookson's, was present and
told of his friend's exemplary boyhood life and his struggles for an
education by working on the farm and in the coal mines. Other appreciative
speeches were made by Leonard H. Shipman in behalf of the church; Vernon C.
LeFevre, for the Masonic Order; Rev. Upton Thomas, who represented the
Rotary Club; Warner Arnold, a graduate of the Troy High School, who paid
the tribute in behalf of the colored people of the community; while Mrs.
Hannah Gahagan delivered the tribute from the social leaders, Mayor Clay E.
Harmon, the appreciation of the city officials; O.B. May, in behalf of the
labor element; E. E. Edgar, for the manufacturers, and other speakers were
B.E. Gibbs, J.C. Fullerton, Jr., William Babb, Mrs. Walter C. Pierce, Miss
Rebecca Epply, Ivan Terrell and C.W. Walters.
==== OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List ====